


Last Remains and Tragic Reminders

by Ridingthewindsofheaven



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Draco Malfoy, Auror Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter Friendship, Gen, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Post-Hogwarts, Post-Second War with Voldemort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 10:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20226616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ridingthewindsofheaven/pseuds/Ridingthewindsofheaven
Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry had made it his life mission to find and capture the last of the Death Eaters. Though Voldemort has been vanquished, his trail of destruction has deep roots. Draco Malfoy, former Death Eater and current spy for the Auror Department, is one of Harry's coworkers. Draco's desire for redemption leads to a grisly discovery with unintended consequences.





	Last Remains and Tragic Reminders

As a part of his job, he would meet Draco Malfoy to exchange any information he had managed to collect. After school he intended to have completely cut ties with Draco Malfoy and never see him again. Unfortunately that wasn’t the plan.

However, Draco’s role as a spy gathering information from the more disliked was invaluable to the Auror department. In fact, after school Draco did secretly train as an auror and was sent to Africa and later South America to help track down Death Eaters. For as much as Harry still had lingering dislike for Malfoy, he was an excellent Legilimens and Occlumens. He was the most valuable double agent the Ministry had. He and his father had been inner circle Death Eaters. He was still a key member of the slowly-but-surely dying upper class pureblood society and very knowledgeable about the dark arts. Only he and the head of the auror department, Coraline Smith, knew about his role. 

It was always amusing to Harry that he was only chosen to be his contact because they stumbled across each other while in Uganda hunting down Claudius Nott, a notorious Death Eater who had served Voldemort loyally for over thirty years and five more after his master’s demise. That was an amusing story. He would be telling his grandchildren that one if he ended up having any.

Their meeting place changed to a different place every time they met. It was always somewhere chosen by Malfoy and it usually was somewhere deserted and out of the way. This time they were at the start of a mountain range with a tiny amount of snow covering the mountains. The mountains were picturesque but he did not wish to linger here. Even though he was thoroughly covered in warm clothes that had heating spells woven into the fibers, the cold wind was starting to bite his face face and hurt his eyes. This place was unnaturally cold. He could feel that there was a magical interference. It was an interference that felt sinister. 

He could see Malfoy waiting for him in the clearing. He was wearing what looked like an expensive tailored navy blue robe with silver trimmings. No matter whether he was disguised or not, he always dressed well. Harry could swear that Malfoy looked worse every time they met. Draco’s light blond hair was now speckled with silver strands and he was growing thinner instead of portly as most men their age did. Maybe Malfoy had some kind of blood malediction from one of his pureblood ancestors, which was more common that it was made out to be, but it was more likely that Malfoy was simply just not taking care of himself.

“Good evening Potter,” Malfoy said, “I have interesting information this week.” 

“What do you have for me?”

Malfoy handed over an envelope he took out of his jacket.

“It should tell you everything I have discovered this week. Including the latest movements of the Worshipers of the Old One and Lady Evangeline. Pureblood supremacists are still convinced that the Dark Lord will rise again and have tried to perform another resurrection spell on his remains, again, with no success -”

“No magic can raise the dead.”

“Yes, I know, let me finish will you? But otherwise, nothing much has happened in the Pureblood movement. I can safely say that at this stage every Death Eater that I know of is either dead or has been caught, convicted and now rotting in Askaban. My father knew a lot of them. I gained access to all of his journals after he was imprisoned. This does not include people like myself who were coerced. Most of their supporters have lost hope and moved onto the Old One Cult. Many, including myself as a cover, are moving over. To be honest, I’m not looking forward to it. ”

“You mean, the fact that we exposed Delphini as being a fraud really pissed people off?”

A key figure in the Pureblood movement over the last five years was Delphini who claimed to be the daughter of Voldemort himself. The reality was that her real name was Delphine Diggory and she was not even remotely related to Voldemort. Her parselmouth was nothing more than rehearsed gibberish. She was now in Azkaban convicted of numerous felonies including everything from casting unforgivable curses, petty theft, conspiracy to murder, fraud etc. Thinking about him having any descendants was just absurd. The thing that got Harry was the idea of Voldemort ever having intercourse with anyone. 

“Obviously but there are plenty of denialists. Everything else is written in the report,” Draco said with mild contempt. 

And so, Harry followed Malfoy up the mountain range on the cold, beaten path. The wind and the feel of the unnatural magical force became stronger and stronger. He resisted his instincts to run away. Whatever this was, it was dark magic.

“Don’t tell me that you’re almost ready to give up now Potter? We don’t have much longer to go.”

“Where are you taking me?”  
“I have something very interesting to show you.”  
Harry continued to follow Malfoy, the sky grew darker and it became harder to put one leg in front of the other. He did not feel like talking. That didn’t stop Malfoy from trying to make conversation.

“I used to take my wife and son to places like this. It has been a year since she died. Her death has taken a great toll on my son and I.”

Harry replied with a neutral tone, “I was not aware that your wife died.”

Malfoy stopped walking and turned to look at him with bitter eyes.

“Of course not. I protected my wife and child by placing them into seclusion. As far as the pureblood movement and Order of the Ancient One both know, I have never married and have no children. Asortia’s family believed that she had betrayed them by marrying a muggle. She was killed by her cousins you know? Her own blood and in our house. She hid our son under an invisibility cloak to save him. He saw it all. My son saw his mother being murdered in front of him. I still have to pretend like I don’t hate these people when I see them at gatherings.”

“I am genuinely sorry for your loss,” he said, his tone was probably cooler than it should have been.

“Just remember than when you are about to doubt me. Also remember that I don’t answer you Potter, I answer to Coraline Smith. She is Head of the Auror Department. Not you.”

“I cannot doubt you Malfoy. I'm not allowed to. I know when you are lying. I’ve known you since we were eleven and you’ve been a pest ever since.”

Malfoy turned around and started walking again, “I will never fall in love again you know, Asortia was my one and only. I am just happy that Scorpius is at Hogwarts where he will be much safer.”

“Why are you telling me all of this now?”

“Well, it's not like I have friends.” 

They sank back into silence. He felt no reason to pry into Malfoy’s line of work or personal life other than what he needed to know. The less he knew the better. However from what Malfoy would say when he did open up to him, there was no denying that Malfoy’s life was just as challenging as his own. Perhaps even more so. 

If there was anyone alive who was almost obsessed with hunting down former Death Eaters and Pureblood supremacists as much as Harry, it would be Draco. Although Harry was not convinced that Malfoy’s motives were purely based upon redemption. There was a lot about Malfoy he did not know. 

Once they reached the top of the mountain Harry could see why Malfoy had brought him here. An ancient wooden chest with a large lock on the front was centred in the middle of a ring made of rocks. This place was used to perform ceremonial dark magic. A surge of horror and revulsion overwhelmed Harry. He knew very well who this was. It was all too familiar. He had hoped that he would never see this magic again seeming as it’s caster had been long dead for over twenty years. When a wizard or witch died usually any magic that they had cast died along with them but sometimes, especially with strong magic, it lingered after death. Like his mother’s protection. 

Draco gave a small chuckle, “You look like you’ve seen death again, Potter. Come closer, I want you to see the insignia.”

His heart was racing and his body started to shake but he pushed himself further. Using every bit of strength not to scream and run away. 

On the top of the wooden chest was the dark mark burnt into it. Its metal edges were copper that had well and truly rusted into green flakes a long time ago. This chest should be falling apart but dark magic held it together.

“From what I have managed to gather, it is the last remnant of Voldemort that still exists. I have found it from going through my father’s old journals. It's taken me over ten years to find this. If any pureblood supremacists found this they would start building a shrine around it. I brought you here to help destroy it. I cannot allow my dear Scorpius to be an orphan.”

Harry said nothing, he felt like he was going to vomit. He could feel the bile reach his upper throat.

“Well,” Malfoy exclaimed, “I guess we should get this over with as soon as possible.”  
Malfoy brought out his wand and flicked it. The lock broke off with a fling. A viscous red goo started to ooze and bubble out of it. When the bubbling goo let out a hissing and sizzling sound on contact with the snow, a vile rotting smell filled the air. The bubbling goo formed itself into tentacles coming out of the chest. These tentacles formed themselves into becoming snakes. The chest now looked like medusa whom had venomous snakes as hair.

Both Harry and Malfoy were quick to cast protection from evil spells upon themselves as a barrier. It was a good move as the snake tentacles began to lashed out at them both with full force. It broke the barrier of his protection spell and he sustained a large gouge on his face that started to bleed. It did the same to Malfoy. He could see that Draco was bleeding from his chest but there was no time to respond. The attack would have been worse had they had not. 

It took at least two hours of casting every spell they could think of at this monstrosity before they even began to get anywhere with it. The scar on Harry’s face continued to bleed and Malfoy had managed to break an ankle jumping from it’s lashes as well as bleed from his chest wound. Finally Harry had had enough, he cast a patronus at it in a last effort to defeat it. A large blinding light came out of his wand and his patronus appeared, a large silver stag. The patronus flung itself at the ooze and began to stamp on it. It burned and hissed. Finally, they were beginning to defeat it. Malfoy followed suit only his patronus was a white ferret, it was much weaker than Harry’s. Within minutes the ooze began to fade away into slush and let out a long lasting high pitched scream that echoed into mountains.  
Harry clutched his face and began chanting, only something as strong as a chant would cut through wounds caused by such dark magic.

“I didn’t know you still used Snape’s magic. I thought you hated the man. I recognise that chant a mile away. He would always have to heal Longbottom pretty much every lesson.”

“Well there is no use letting good magic go to waste.”

Malfoy cast a healing spell on the slash on his chest and began to speak with a raspy voice, “That was hard. I can’t cast proper patronuses. Thank goodness neither of us were badly injured.”

“Well if you’re going to take me to help you destroy something extremely dangerous at least let me know beforehand. I’d like to leave now.”

“Not yet, Potter.” Malfoy scolded, “We still have to look inside. You’ll need to take it with you to Headquarters.”

Malfoy cast one more detection spell to scan for other malevolent spells. That was the last.

What lay inside made both of them shudder. It was a pile of bones with a Hogwarts uniform still attached. The uniform was too faded to be sure of what Hogwarts house they had been at this stage. There was a sacrificial knife with a serpent carved into the handle along with the remains. This was not a Horcrux but it was still a piece of very dark magic.

“I have seen plenty of sacrifice in my time, Potter. Why this poor person was sacrificed I am not sure but I assume it was for an important purpose to go to so much effort in protection. I would be interesting to find out as to why this poor young person was sacrificed. My father never mentioned as to the reason in his journals and it was likely that my father was not told the reason. If my father had not died in Azkaban already I would go there just to give him a particularly nasty jinx as payback for this.”

Harry winced, “Well, I can tell it is not a Horcrux. I know one when I see one. I am more concerned with uncovering this murder victims identity than why they were murderned.”

Malfoy shrugged, “Still, it must feel good knowing that the last fragment of the Dark Lord is gone from this world.”

Harry felt a surge of relief, “Yes, now let’s get out of here. ”

He and Malfoy both apparated away from each other. Harry was happy to be away from the bitter cold. Malfoy seemed to be happy as well. Harry could not remember the last time he recalled seeing Malfoy experience any positive emotions.


End file.
